five husbands she could have loved (and the one she did)
by Elizabeth Blossom
Summary: Love is sweetest, but it cannot change a man's nature. But sometimes it can come to an understanding. (Lyanna/Jaime, Lyanna/Stannis, Lyanna/Oberyn, Lyanna/Rodrik Greyjoy, Lyanna/Ned, Lyanna/Rhaegar)


**Jaime ****Lannister**

Lyanna smiled as Jaime kissed her, pulling him closer to encourage him to keep kissing her for as long as he could. She was slowly beginning to love her golden lion and though he would not yet admit it, he was slowly beginning to love her. Why else would he had pulled her into this kiss when she told him she was carrying his child, the heir to Casterly Rock?

Lyanna remembered the day they had been betrothed and she could not bring herself to feel anything about the betrothal except happiness that it would not be Robert Baratheon she would be marrying. She knew Ned loved the man and though Ned was, always had been and always would be, her favorite brother, this was a subject she knew that they had felt different upon. She could never bring herself to tell Ned that she did not want to marry Robert, as she knew that his reaction would be sadness over the fact that she could not care for the man as he did and a small amount of hope that she still do her duty and marry him. That was the one thing that had always annoyed her about Ned. He did his duty and he thought everyone else would. She was the only person that could make Ned forget about duty and just have fun, and even that only happened on rare occasions.

She and Robert had only been talks, true, but everyone had assumed that in a few short years, Lyanna would become Lady Lyanna Baratheon and the thought of it made her want to cry. Lyanna hadn't cared much for Jaime Lannister, but as she did not want to burst into tears at the thought of becoming his wife and the mother of his children, she considered it a vast improvement and that was why she had chosen him.

Her father had handed her the letter from Tywin Lannister, stating that his son needed a wife, one that he could marry as soon as possible. Lyanna had wondered what Jaime Lannister could have done that would make his father want to marry him off as soon as possible, and she found out three months into their marriage, that apparently Jaime had been about to join the Kingsguard when he came to court at fifteen and Tywin had found out about it, how Jaime did not know, and quickly sent him back to Casterly Rock while a suitable wife was found for him.

Lysa Tully had apparently been thought of, but for some unknown reason, Tywin passed over her and now Lysa Tully was getting married to Jon Arryn and that made Lyanna suspect the reason, and her heart ached with sadness for the girl, though it seemed all Lysa felt was hate for Lyanna if the glares she had sent Lyanna throughout her and Jaime's wedding were any indication.

Jaime stopped kissing Lyanna and upon seeing her smile, returned with one that was as bright as could be. She hoped their child would have that smile. A little girl perhaps, smart and wild like her mother with the name Joanna like Jaime's mother, or a boy, tall and strong like his father with the name Jon like many Northern Kings.

"My father will pleased to hear that news, my Lady," he told her and Lyanna laughed.

"I know he will be, though he won't do anything more than nod. He'll save the congratulations until it's a healthy boy."

Upon hearing his laugh at those words, Lyanna hugged him and realized that she was not slowly falling in love with him. She was now totally and completely in love with him.

"I love you," she whispered and smiled when he whispered back, "I love you too."

**Stannis****Baratheon**

He was said not to be as wild as his older brother and for that, Lyanna liked him better than she had ever liked Robert, though she knew she wasn't supposed to speak ill of the dead.

The accident that he killed Robert had been terrible, and Lyanna thought that the timing of it was remarkable, that when they had ridden during a trip he had made to Winterfell. They had somehow ended up without a chaperone, and Robert then seemed to get it into his head that she was simply someone he could just take. Lyanna had put a stop to it however.

Somehow his horse had gotten spooked coming back to Winterfell and Robert had fallen, dying instantly from a broken neck.

Ned was still in mourning, but Lyanna had managed to pull herself from it remarkably fast, though it was for the benefit of Stannis. Her father still wanted to honor the marriage agreement with House Baratheon and since Stannis was still willing to honor it, Lyanna was still going to Lyanna Baratheon, Lady of Storm's End. She didn't want her soon-to-be husband to get a complex about his brother before they even married if she was seen still mourning him.

After she had meant Stannis Baratheon for the first time, quiet and shy and awkward, clearly having no idea what to do with his hands and very gruff and blunt when he should be tactful, Lyanna knew that she could least have a chance of loving this Baratheon brother.

Robert had always said that Stannis was a bore, but Lyanna had always thought a bore sounded nice. If she had married someone wild like herself, they would always be fighting she thought. Perhaps marrying someone calm would help calm her.

The marriage between her and Stannis had been quiet and small beneath the weirwood tree. Robert's poems and gifts had meant nothing to her than something to laugh at and pretty things to use, but it was Stannis, whose blue eyes didn't fill with lust when he saw her but instead wonderment, that actually made her feel the goddess that he always claimed she was.

The Storm God and the Snow Goddess, he had told her they'd be, but Robert would never be Lyanna's Storm God and she would never be his Snow Goddess.

As they made their way back to Storm's End, where Stannis' little brother Renly was waiting for them, Lyanna had soon realized she was pregnant.

She had kept it quiet, hidden to everyone but herself as she waited until she actually felt the child move in belly before she told Stannis, like her nurse had always said she should. There had been many nights though that she had wanted to tell him. Joanna, she wanted to name the child if it was a girl. Jon, if it was a boy.

She had felt the babe kick in the middle of a night that she had spent tossing and turning for the sweet release of sleep, but she stilled as soon as she felt the babe and wide smile came across her face. Within five minutes, she had run to Stannis' room and woken him up to feel their child. For a minute he simply looked confused until he realized what it was and smiled, truly smiled, for the first time in their marriage.

"I love you," she whispered and smiled when he whispered back, "I love you too."

**Oberyn**** Martell**

Lyanna laughed when she saw her new husband being pushed into the lake by Nym, as did Obara, Tyene, and little baby Sarella. She had been nervous when she first met Oberyn, he had seemed too dark and wild even for her. She had heard tales about the Prince of Dorne, with his bastard daughters and his viper eyes. Her father had been hesitant to even ask her at first, but he still had.

Robert might be a good match, but Oberyn would make her a Princess and that was enough for her father to consider it.

It only took her three minutes to decide that she wanted to become a Princess of Dorne than the Lady of Storm's End. Princesses in Dorne had power and freedom that a Lady of Storm's End could never dream of. Her father, Brandon, and Benjen had looked shocked when she told them her decision. She had heard the rumors about Oberyn Martell like everyone else.

She had also heard the rumors about Robert Baratheon like everyone else. Many of them she had gotten out of Ned. She knew that was why Ned had not look surprised about her decision and had looked resigned the minute her father had told her. Ned had told her the whoring and drinking and fighting would stop when she and Robert had gotten married, but she wondered how much Ned had really believed it.

She wondered if Ned knew how much she hadn't wanted to marry Robert.

But Oberyn Martell had been kind to her when she first met and had even invited Ned to come with them to Dorne, already having recognized that he was her favorite brother. Ned had smiled and told Oberyn he would.

Brandon glared at Oberyn during the entire wedding, and it felt odd to Lyanna. She had never really gotten the sense that Brandon liked her, they fought all the time, both wild and yet wanting to control the other, but he seemed almost protective of her during the wedding. Benjen had tried to imitate Brandon's fierce glare, but failed so miserably and so hilariously that Ned was struggling to keep in his laughter through almost all the ceremony.

Oberyn's daughters had not come North for the wedding, but as soon as Lyanna arrived in Dorne, she met them all and fell in love. Kind Obara, playful Nym, sweet Tyene, and curious Sarella. She made him promise no more children unless they were from her and though she wasn't sure he would keep it, she hoped desperately he would. Ned was too distracted by Ashara Dayne to even notice his new nieces, though they all seemed to think he was hilarious.

She loved Dorne, almost as much as she loved the North which she had never thought possible. She loved her goodbrother and goodsister too, as well their spouses and their children.

And soon she was pregnant with her own.

She was pregnant with a prince or a princess that she knew would be beautiful and kind and have their father's eyes, even if their color was hers. Jon or Joanna, she decided to name them, as she leaned in to whisper in Oberyn's ear to tell him after he had pulled himself out of the water. All he could do was smile after she told him.

"I love you," she whispered and smiled when he whispered back, "I love you too."

**Rodrik****Greyjoy**

Her new husband drank a little too much and fought a lot, but he loved her though Lyanna didn't love him and he was faithful to her though his Uncle Euron called him weak for it, which made him a far better husband than Robert Baratheon ever could have been. But Lyanna had also noticed that when she made one innocent, joking comment about his drinking and fighting, he had stopped drinking nearly so much and had restrained himself for a time when it came to fighting, at least until the fact that he had stopped drinking caught up with him and he grew even more stubborn and angry. But he never was angry with her, and they were both incredibly stubborn, so it worked out.

Lyanna had been shocked when her father decided to ignore Robert Baratheon in favor of Rodrik Greyjoy and the fight that each of her brother's had gotten into with her father were loud and angry. The fight her father had with Ned had been especially bad, and Ned had been sent to the Dreadfort for three months because of it. Lyanna still didn't know why her father had decided to make her the future Lady of the Iron Islands than Lady of Storm's End, but she had stopped wondering.

What was the use? She actually found herself happy with Rodrik and she had never wanted to marry Robert Baratheon in the first place. It had all worked out in the end.

The Iron Islands were cold and gray, nothing like the North where you could breathe and laugh and run. Still, Lyanna was determined to make herself as happy as she could be and she found that she could be very happy.

Lyanna found herself adoring her good-mother and Alannys Greyjoy always had a smile for her. Maron was difficult, but he and Lyanna had come to an understanding that they simply wouldn't interact with each other. Asha was fierce and wonderful and Lyanna prayed with all her heart that Asha simply wouldn't quiet when she older and let her family decide for her. Lyanna might love pretty dresses and songs, but she also loved beautiful horses and swords and she would never deny a girl to love what she wanted to love. Theon was simply the sweetest boy Lyanna had ever met and she also prayed that his family wouldn't break him of that.

She didn't like her good-father nor her good-uncle's. They terrified her, Euron especially with his winks, and more than once Lyanna debated simply writing Ned and asking him to come and save her, but then Rodrik had asked her if she would like to meet his mother's brother Rodrik, and perhaps stay at Harlaw for a couple of weeks.

A month later, Lyanna had all but moved out of Pyke and into Harlaw with Alannys, Asha, and Theon, and Rodrik visiting her when he could. Two months later, Lyanna realized that she was pregnant.

She waited in heavy anticipation for Rodrik to come back to Harlaw to give him the news, and all she could think about was their child and what they would be like, her little Jon or Joanna and she didn't care if neither were traditionally ironborn names. Her children wouldn't just be krackens after, they would be wolves too.

Rodrik lifted her up and twirled around and laughed when he finally arrived back. When he put her down, Lyanna leaned upped and kissed him.

"I love you," she whispered and smiled when he whispered back, "I love you too."

**Ned Stark**

Lyanna gripped Ned's hand tightly as she read the letter from King's Landing, written by shaky hands, though that could just be her eyes blurring with tears. Father and Brandon had gone to King's Landing after Father had gotten a mysterious letter from King Aerys, asking for his presence. Rickard Stark had told none of his children why, but had requested that Brandon come with him.

If only he had known.

King Aerys had burned the Red Keep, killing her father and brother as well as the Prince Rhaegar, the Princess Elia, their children, and himself. The new King Viserys and his pregnant mother had been safe on Dragonstone along with Barristan Selmy and Jaime Lannister, now the only two members of the Kingsguard alive. It had been the Queen Rhaella that wrote the letter to them.

But through her grief, Lyanna realized that she was now Lady of Winterfell.

A year ago, the King, after hearing a jape that the reasons the Targaryen's were usually so mad was because they wed their sisters, had decreed that every Lord Paramount who had an unmarried son and an unmarried daughter, must have them marry. If not in this generation, in the next, and then perhaps the one after that, at least until there was a marriage. Almost all the Houses had been safe, safe from the madness for a few years at least, until hopefully Prince Rhaegar took the throne and could end the decree. But three, the Tullys and the Starks, had not been. It had been decided through her father and Hoster Tully that Brandon and Catelyn would still marry as planned, but Lysa Tully would marry Edmure when the boy came of age and Lyanna would marry Ned.

Though Lysa would not have marry her little brother as planned after all. The Queen Rhaella had lifted the decree, as ell offering Lyanna and Ned an annulment as the only brother and sister in the Seven Kingdoms who had actually wed because of it.

Lyanna remembered her wedding, a quiet, solemn affair. It had livened up at the feast, but her father and brothers could not look at her and Ned throughout it. The King had watched them closely, having come all the way north to this marriage that he wanted. He had smiled the entire time.

Lyanna knew that she should want an annulment, she was sure that Ned wanted an annulment, but for some reason she couldn't find it in her to want it. She had slowly come to think of Ned, to feel for Ned, as something other than a brother. He had always been her favorite and the half-year they had been married had not been a horrible one. She and Ned had only recently stop needing to be as drunk they usually were to bed each other. Of course, there was another reason she didn't want an annulment and almost of its own violation, her hand came to rest upon her stomach as if she could feel the child in it. Jon or Joanna, heir to Winterfell and product of incest.

"Do you want an annulment?" she still asked. She could raise their bastard alone if needed.

"Where would that leave the child?" Ned asked and she didn't know why she would think he wouldn't know. She didn't know why she would think he would abandon her and their child.

Then Lyanna did something that surprised them both. She kissed him suddenly and fiercely and lust bloomed inside her for the first time in their marriage.

"I love you," she whispered and smiled when he whispered back, "I love you too."

**Rhaegar****Targaryen**

"I love you," she whispered and smiled when he whispered back, "I love you too."

Lyanna stood on her tip-toe's to give her new husband a kiss, though the bump of her stomach prevented her from getting as close to Rhaegar as she would have wished. She wondered what their child would be like. Rhaegar seemed convinced that it was a girl, Visenya is what he wanted to name her, though Lyanna had always liked the name Joanna for a girl. Rhaegar had promised to let her choose the name if it was boy though, and Lyanna already knew that she would give him.

Jon. Prince Jon Targaryen, son of Prince Rhaegar and Princess Lyanna, brother to Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon, and perhaps one day, brother to more little Targaryen's.

"It's too bad Elia can't be here," Rhaegar said and Lyanna nodded. She had been surprised by the princess willingness to let her husband take another wife, though she knew that Dorne had always been more welcoming to paramours than other areas of the Seven Kingdoms, but then she'd heard.

The Princess Elia was dying, had coughed up blood and been forced to spend day's abed since even before her son's birth and she would only live a couple of years, maybe three or four, longer. She had wanted to choose her husband's next wife and the woman who would be raising her children after she had passed.

Lyanna still couldn't believe that the Princess Elia had chosen her. That was what those blue winter roses at Harrenhal meant.

At first, Rhaegar and Elia had planned to wait until after Elia's death before Rhaegar would marry her, but the betrothal and looming marriage to Robert had forced their hand and had made Rhaegar head north with the sole intention of taking her for a second wife until Elia's passing.

Then she would become his only wife.

At first, she had been unsure if she had wanted to do that, unsure if she wanted to supplant the Princess' place, but Rhaegar had given her a letter from Elia that stated her want, her intention.

It was remarkably easy for Lyanna to leave after that.

She had wanted to bring one of her brother's onto the plan, preferably Ned as he would be the one to best explain to Robert that she would no longer to be marrying him. But Rhaegar had wanted to leave then and there, head to Dorne and the Tower of Joy immediately, where she would stay until terms had been figured out with her family.

Of course, that decision had gotten her father and brother killed and Lyanna would always regret that decision for the rest of her days.

That decision led to a war that Lyanna knew was her fault.

But it was hard to feel guilty when she found herself looking into Rhaegar's violet eyes and she felt her child kick. It was hard to wish for the North when she was so happy here. It was hard to wish for honor when she felt no shame about having none.

It was hard and somehow Lyanna managed it.


End file.
